~ non profit supporting open source software

FAQs

FAQs

prpl (pronounced “Purple”) is an open-source, community-driven, collaborative, non-profit foundation targeting and supporting the MIPS architecture—and open to others—with a focus on enabling next-generation datacenter to device portable software and virtualized architectures.

One of the starting points of prpl is pulling together MIPS ecosystem partners and resources under one umbrella to nurture collaboration and openness, reduce duplication of effort, and share the benefits with everybody.

Why is the prpl foundation being created?

prpl is being created on the principle of portability, allowing for code to be written once, and deployed to many devices – regardless of architecture. By pushing portable software (JITs, emulation, binary translation), prpl enables developers to innovate on their core strengths.

One of the key ecosystem requirements for the Internet-of-Things (IoT) to be successful is a reduced dependency on instruction set architecture (ISA) compatibility. With so many types of devices – from datacenter to embedded – there’s a need to ensure fragmentation doesn’t get in the way of innovation.

In addition, there is a need across markets for better security and faster deployment of devices – which virtualization can achieve – given the right software ecosystem. Virtualization also allows for best use of processor resources for next-generation big data needs – and as a dedicated community prpl supports continued development of the ecosystem and infrastructure.

Why is it needed?

The open-source world needs a collaborative community to address development of better embedded security, virtualization and software portability. prpl is the embodiment of a variety of new and existing community open source projects to help address these issues. The goal is to push innovation in areas ranging from big data, cloud computing and analytics to embedded devices, IoT hubs and residential gateways.

One such project is OpenWrt – a phenomenal community project that we believe can benefit from more attention for features such as carrier-grade containers, secure updates and better package management for next-generation residential gateways.

What will this provide to the industry? To companies? To developers?

prpl is bringing together industry mindshare to complement the IoT ecosystem – from ‘datacenter to device’.

It will allow member companies to focus on their innovation on core strengths and products, and leave the enablement to the prpl community.

For developers, this means being able to observe a holistic view of the vertical ecosystem, code once – and deploy on many, and focus on writing high-quality code.

How do companies, organizations and individuals engage with prpl?

There are various ways to engage with prpl. Companies can join prpl as Board Members or Contributor Members.

Individuals can apply to engage with prpl for free by joining the foundation and participating in many ways.

What does it cost?

prpl is a non-profit open community – to ‘use’ prpl costs nothing. prpl also has paying commercial members who guide and steer prpl and form the Board.

Why is it called ‘prpl’?

Well, it had to be called something. There is no particular meaning in the name, but there is the natural duality that the prpl branding color is, of course, P[u]rpl[e]. We made it unique by stripping the vowels, which also makes it very internet search engine friendly.

Who is creating prpl?

prpl was formed by key leading companies including Broadcom, Cavium, Ineda Systems, Ingenic Semiconductor, Lantiq, Qualcomm and others. The list continues to grow!

What is a PEG?

A PEG. is a prpl Engineering Group. prpl manages its major projects as PEGs which target specific domains Datacenter, Networking & Storage, Connected Consumer and Embedded/IoT.

How is prpl all tested?

Each individual prpl project is tested according to its own specific needs. Ultimately a number of larger integration tests are performed, such as a full Android conformance test or a full Linux distribution build. Please see each individual project for more details.

What hardware does prpl run on?

prpl has a number of platforms it uses regularly and thus recommends. Please see the hardware page for more details.

Does prpl meet up sometimes?

Yes. prpl management meets on a regular basis. We will soon be listing all of the prpl meetings and events here on the prplfoundation.org website. Please check back soon.

Is prpl hiring?

prpl itself does have full time employees, but the majority of prpl people work full time for the prpl member companies. We will soon be listing job openings here on the prplfoundation.org website. Please check back soon.

Where is prpl based?

As prpl is a worldwide multi-group entity, there is no single prpl office. It is ‘in the cloud’.